Malta Is Still One Of The EU'S Worst Performers In Terms Of Economic Equality

The country's ranking of 93 out of 144 countries compares favourably with last year's 108, but all other European Union countries except Hungary, at 103rd, managed to do better.

While progress in narrowing attainment gaps between men and women in Malta has been made, it remains the EU's second-worst performer in terms of gender equality, particularly when it comes to economic participation and opportunity, according to the 2017 Global Gender Gap Report.

The country's ranking of 93 out of 144 countries compares favourably with last year's 108, but all other European Union countries except Hungary, at 103rd, managed to do better.

The report, published by the World Economic Forum, measured ‘gaps’ between genders in different countries. On all four of the sub-indices measured by the report - economic participation and opportunity; educational attainment; health and survival; and political empowerment - Malta's scores rose when compared to 2016, but a sizeable 32 per cent gap remained.

Malta managed to close the gap and achieved gender equality in this regard in terms of education attainment, but it’s still failing in terms of economic participation and opportunity, with an index score of 0.610. A score of 1, which Malta achieves in educational attainment terms, indicates full equality.

Malta ranked 103rd in terms of health and survival, though its index score of 0.971 suggests that with some effort, equality can be attained.

On the other hand, Malta's 85th place ranking in terms of political empowerment – a shameful score of 0.146 out of 1 – suggests that the inequality between genders is huge.

In Western Europe, the overall gender parity gap is around 25 per cent.